Hi (if anyone is there) <_< !

Today, while working on a project, I have encountered an issue while thinking to clone an object along the spline/shape.As we know, spacing tool is the best when it comes to such procedures, but in my case it was not giving me enough control to bend or tilt (rotate) my object in a particular manner (while following the shape's flow).I asked my colleague, he told me to create a whole shape (with clones) and then to give a bend of 360 on y axis.I tried, it worked but I lost the control on the shape and the scene became heavy.So, after a bit of brainstorming and digging around few forums, I found a great solution which can be implemented on various scenes in various ways!

1- Here is the object I am working with, basically a Disc-shaped stadium

2- Select the Edge Loop from the structure to which you want to make your clones

3- Convert the selected edge loop to a shape. (THIS TRICK - OLD BUT GOLD)

4- Now create your tilted/twisted/damned or whatever object which is to be cloned around the structure. Align it with the shape which have created in step 3.

5 - And here comes the trick which has saved the day..finally!

Assign a path constraint to our cylinder so as to follow the direction of the path. Basically, we are creating an animation of the cylinder following the path..(textual deja vu? :/)

6- Don't forget to check these two settings as they are most crucial one to make your object clone itself on the same orientation as we presumed

7 - So, now we have created an animation by using the path constraint. Let's come to an awesome tool know as SNAPSHOT. Basically, It will create ghosting but as meshes (ghosting is like a preview of the animation on different intervals, Racing Game freaks would know better).

So, we are implementing the same technique but to CREATE ACTUAL MESHES.

8- TADA!!

Hope this trick is helpful!

I will try to post few other examples using the same.

Cheers.

Dream On

- DrEmoTonic

VRAY..ohh..you beauty.

Today by messing around with the RenderElements of Vray, I came to know about taking a render pass for AO!!

Yes, no more hassle like mental ray to separetly render the AO pass (or, is there any work around?)

Here is how :

1) Add VrayExtraTex in your RenderElements

2) Drag the empty 'texture' slot to your material editor

3) Add VRAYDIRT in diffuse slot, and give the settings according to your scene.

Voila, AO comes as pass, even with the lights and stuff ON.

- DrEmoTonic

Found this good tip from Chris Arlt about creating SHADOW ONLY LIGHTS.
Now this is some kick-ass discovery (though it might be buggy for certain settings!)

For a nice light setup, it can be a nice option to create a (non-v-ray-) light that only makes shadows but no light.This is how it works:

- Set up a light source you like to use (standard or photometric).- Enable "Shadows" for this light source.- set the light's color to black. This will prevent brightening up your scene.- set the shadow color to white. This will create the shadow in general.- set the shadow density to -1.0 (or something else below 0.0 to fine-tune). This is the key to the black shadow.

-

DrEmoTonic.

"ILLUSIONS ARE REALITY"

Finally,Thinking year after year, month by month,here I am with my blog.

I am CG artist/MotionGraphicArtist/VFXartist! and basically none of these (haa..I know a bit of all but not an expert, thriving to be one).

Based in India, I am a working professional now and it's been a year.Have a Engineering Degree with honors (tell me about that, no use in general 0.o) and an advanced diploma in VFX and 3D.

I love to play with 3dsMax, Cinema4D and After effects.FumeFx, Rayfire, blah blah blah...I love it all as a learner.

Here I will try to show-off my skills ("ohh..yeah as he got few -__-") on time to time basis.May be some tutorials, maybe some tricks which I have learned or cool stuff from other guys :D.